


Raz

by Chickenparm



Category: Game Grumps, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Barry is a Cinnamon Roll, F/M, Internet, Internet Friends, One Shot, Secret Identity, Skype, Swearing, What a dingleberry, oops-poops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 03:25:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8516614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chickenparm/pseuds/Chickenparm
Summary: The reader meets a guy on World of Warcraft. They hit it off. They meet.Except he doesn't tell her that he is actually the Youtuber she'd been gushing about for 6 months. Oops-poops.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I did a thing. Barry is my favorite cinnabun. Un-beta'd.

_I put a mark up, please CC it!_

_Tank, pull off me, I've got healing aggro._

_I'm dead, cool shit._

You sighed, leaning back in your chair and crossing your hands behind your head. Running dungeons was tedious at best, but you were helping your friend get equipment for one of his newer characters. Of course, the tank given to you in the group finder was absolute garbage. It took everything you had not to spew insults at him. 

_Hey, I'll rez you, don't release ok?_

There was a private message from the shaman in the group. His damage was probably the only thing making this dungeon bearable. You typed out a quick response, just before the notification window popped up for your resurrection. The rest of the dungeon went by in the same fashion – you scrambling to keep the tank from killing everyone, dying from healing aggro or too large of pulls, and a few more resurrections from the shaman. 

Finally – _finally_ – your group killed the final boss, and just as the loot window popped up, you received a notification of a new friend request through the game. Razzadoop? The name immediately made you think of Barry Kramer, one of your favorite Youtubers and video editors. His work was one of things that made you go into the profession yourself. Razzadoop is his common handle to use on the internet. 

Shrugging, you accepted the request and were immediately met with a message. 

_Wow, that tank sucked mad dicks._

The message made you let out a bark of laughter, before you answered with your own message. 

_Yeah he did. I'm crying irl. Razzadoop? Fan of Barry?_

The shaman didn't answer for a long time. Maybe you were incorrect? But it's a pretty unique handle, not something that someone would make up out of the blue without having known the original owner. 

_Yeah, something like that. Wanna run another? Queues are shorter with a healer ;)_

Something like that? Okay, dude. You accept his group invite to run a few more dungeons, getting him to invite your friend as well. The commentary runs through all of your dungeons, shit-talking all of the bad people, cracking bad jokes, making puns, and general tomfoolery. His in-game name matched his battle-net handle, so you'd taken to calling him Raz in your head. 

It was late at night before you left the group and told Raz you needed to get to bed, assuring him that you would be online tomorrow, in-between the editing work you did for a friend's Youtube channel, and your own freelance work. It was always nice to find people you could screw around with on the internet. 

 

The next day, you rolled out of bed close to 9 in the morning, took your shower and put your hot-girl disguise on before heading out to get coffee. It was early May, but the morning was just warm enough to not need a sweater. Four blocks to the west of your modest apartment building was a Starbucks, and you had just enough basic-bitch in you to order your chai latte and do it with pride. 

It was attached to a Barnes and Noble, but you had just enough willpower to turn away from the beautifully crafted bookstore, directly imported from heaven. It was hard, but you pat yourself on the back mentally and head back home. Ginny emailed you the raw files needed to edit her music video for one of her recently released songs, and since she'd given you the money first, it was only right to hustle home and try and get it all put together today. 

The computer sitting at your workstation was a beast – not only did you edit videos and do graphic design for a living, but you also spent an uncomfortable amount of time playing video games. The launcher for battle-net booted up, and it wasn't long after you unpacked the files and started getting things going that you got a message window pop-up. 

_Hey. How's it going?_

Raz. You honestly weren't expecting him to talk to you again after last night, most people added you so that they could nag you to heal dungeons or PvP with them. They usually weren't successful. 

_Good, just went to get Starbucks, settling in to edit a video. You?_

Raz took a minute to respond, enough time for you to switch to your video editing software and start playing the raw footage through, thinking of how to fit things together. 

_Good, doing the same thing actually, that's weird lol. What'd you get from Starbucks?_

You let the window flash for a little bit until you finished watching all the footage Ginny had taken. When you did read it, you smiled at his own choice of activity. You wondered if he worked from home like you did, or with an office or something. When you asked, he explained that he worked in a shared office space with a few other people, but he also had his own set-up at home. He just preferred to work in the office space, since he was able to focus more. 

_Yeah, I work from home and I find myself screwing around a lot. I get all the work done that I need to, but if I didn't mess around so much, I'd probably be more productive, lol :P_

Talking with Raz was surprisingly easy. The two of you shared a lot of interests, all the way down to the type of editing software that you use. Eventually, he had to head away from the computer and couldn't chat through the battle-net launcher, but he offered to exchange Skype handles so that you could chat over the phone app. What could it hurt? 

His Skype handle wasn't Razzadoop, and his Skype didn't have an actual name listed. Whatever, no biggie. Your conversation moved to Skype, picking up immediately where you'd left off, talking about the pros and cons of freelance work. 

The rest of your day was spent putting the finishing touches on Ginny's video, talking with Raz, watching Game Grumps and screwing around. Eventually Raz shanghai'd you into logging on World of Warcraft and doing some dungeons with him, but you turned in early. You kept Steam Train going as you laid in bed, listening to Barry bullshit with Ross, smiling to yourself. You'd be lying if you said you didn't have a soft spot for Barry Kramer. He was definitely your dream guy. 

 

Raz quickly became one of the highlights of your day. He was always online, due to his own line of work, so you carried out conversations with him almost constantly. Now was one of those times. You'd finished the current project you were on, and had everything minimized except for the Skype window, waiting for his reply. 

_Yeah, I'll log on WoW and we can PVP for a bit. Can we do a Skype call? Typing is a fast way for us to lose in arenas lol._

You hooked up your headset and plopped it over your ears, the top sitting strangely due to the big bun on the crown of your head, He called after you responded affirmatively, and you hit the answer button almost immediately. After two months of talking, you were somewhat eager to put a voice to a... not-face. You still hadn't seen what he really looked like. Not that it really mattered, Raz was Raz, and you'd probably end up just thinking of him as his in-game character anyway. 

"Heyyy," His voice was surprising. It was nice. Something about it made your stomach flutter. 

"Oh heyyyy," You drawled out after hesitating just a bit. Raz is silent but you can feel the smile in his voice when he answers. 

"...you have a nice voice," He says after a beat, and you can't contain the grin that spread across your face, and the "awww" at the compliment. He laughed, and it made your heart swell. Oh fuck. 

"You do too?" You laugh out and he laughs in response as well. It was awkward for a short amount of time before he invited you to a group and started calling out strategies. Time flew by between the swearing and jokes, and it was late at night when you finally decided to call it quits and hit the hay. Raz sounds disappointed when he tells you goodnight, but asks if the two of you can possibly Skype call tomorrow while you work, since he'll be doing most of his work at home that day. You agree, and you giddily go to sleep, swearing at yourself in the back of your mind. 

You don't even know what Raz looks like, letting yourself get this worked up over a guy from the internet is a very bad idea. But his silly jokes, subtle compliments, and sweet personality were hard to resist. 

 

The following morning, you wake up to a Skype call from Raz – the faceless man that had been the object of your dreams the night before. What the fuck? 

"Raz, I was still sleeping," You grumped after answering the phone. He only laughed and apologized, before telling you to look at your clock. It was almost 11. You groaned, and asked him how he knew what time zone you were in. 

"When you have a conversation going on Skype, it tells you what time it is there when you look near their portrait at the top. C'mon, get up. You have an asston of work to do," You grumble and climb out of bed to his quiet laughter, and his quip about how cute you were in the morning. 

"I'm not cute, I'm very unhappy," you set the phone down on the counter and begin brushing your teeth. He seems to notice this and fills the conversation by himself, listing off the things he needs to work on as well. Some animations, editing a few videos for his friends, doing a little writing. 

"I might have to pause our call for a little bit, my favorite Youtuber just posted a video and I wanna watch that real quick," you interject, looking at the Youtube notification on the phone after spitting out your toothpaste. 

"Who?" He asked after a short pause. A small smile breaks out on your face at the thought of your inspiration. 

"Barry Kramer, do you know him? He's the best. His video editing is so good. And his animation.. and his face. I really like his face," You trailed off, thinking about your flannel-wearing dream-man. Raz was silent for a couple seconds before laughing somewhat. 

"Yeah I've heard of him. His work is okay, I can't say anything bad." 

"Anything bad!? Barry is the best. He's the reason why I wanted to get into video editing and animation. He's like, my favorite," You interrupted him and moved back into the room to get changed into some jeans and a t-shirt. Raz only laughed at your staunch defense, and changed the subject. The two of you settled in to start working on your separate projects – you had another video of Ginny's to edit and Raz was working on a short animation. He didn't really share what he worked on, saying it was covered by NDAs. Fair enough, you didn't pry after that. 

"So did you watch Barry's new video on GrumpOut? The Skyward Sword one? I was rolling the whole time." 

"No, I didn't get the chance to," he said, and you took the chance to gush. 

"You should! I love Barry, he's so funny. And cute. He's definitely my favorite Grump. I just wanna pinch his lil cheeks. Ugh," You grunt, and he laughs somewhat awkwardly. I guess it would be kind of weird to listen to a girl gush about a dude, but you couldn't help it. Barry was probably your dream guy, and you notified Raz of this. He laughed oddly again and the two of you lapsed back into silence for a short while. 

"I like the new Skype picture by the way. Your hair is pretty like that," he said offhandedly, and you could hear clicking in the background of his end of the call. You could feel your face heat up, and you were glad that it wasn't a video chat, even though you desperately wanted to see what Raz looked like. 

"Are you saying my hair isn't normally pretty?" You teased, pushing down the embarrassment and hiding behind the sass. He sputtered a bit at this. 

"No! I mean, yes. Your hair is pretty all the time, I just meant it looked good!" Your laughter interrupts his recovery, and he just lets out a dissatisfied grunt and you have to cover the mic from your heavy laughter. He was fun to tease, that was for sure. 

You cheeks started to hurt once it started to get dark outside. You realized it was from smiling all day, even when the two of you were sitting in silence. You bite the side of your cheek and grunt in pain, and Raz immediately asks what's wrong. 

"Do you want the truth or do you want me to make something up to save my embarrassment?" You ask, and he asks for both, since he'll whittle the truth out eventually. Damn cute and caring guys, have to be so cute and caring. What the hell. 

"Well, I would say that I stubbed my toe on my desk." 

"But the truth?" 

"The truth is that I bit my cheek to stop smiling, because I haven't stopped all day and my face is starting to hurt." 

"What are you smiling so hard for?" He asks, but you can tell from the smile in his voice that he already knows. 

"You, ya goob. I'm smiling because of you. You make me smile." 

"Good, your smile is pretty. You should do it all the time," his compliment coaxes an embarrassed giggle out of you, and you scrunch your face up to try and stop the smile from creeping back up again. 

"You're so freakin' sweet. You're gonna give me cavities." 

"Just brush your teeth a lot, so I can keep telling you how beautiful you are." 

He thought you were beautiful. 

**He thought you were beautiful.**

You mind screams it over and over again. You almost want to tear open your window and announce it to the city, _HE THINKS I'M BEAUTIFUL!_

"Um, thank you, Raz," You finally manage out after almost 30 seconds of your brain shutting down. Calling you cute or pretty was one thing, but beautiful? Your stomach was flipping all over the place. You wanted to throw up – but like, the good kind of throw up. You wanted to barf glitter. 

"I don't know what you look like, but you sound cute. Describe yourself, since you don't have pictures!" You demand, and he laughs somewhat nervously. 

"Uh, I have a beard? Not like a big bushy one, just kinda a shorter one-" 

"You shave your neck right? Please don't be a neckbeard..." 

"No, I keep it shaved nice! Uhhh, I'm five-nine? I'm not ginger." 

"Oh thank goodness, you have a soul!" You joke, and he quips back that he doesn't, he sold it to the devil so he could grow facial hair. What a goob, you think to yourself, and you voice these thoughts to him. He proudly claims the title of goob, stating that he is Lord of the Goobs, ruling from his Dingleberry Palace.  
Your heart is racing, your stomach is flipping, and you realize you're in love with the Lord of the Goobs. 

 

Four months later, you excitedly tell Raz that you've been given a ticket to Blizzcon for your birthday. Your excitement doubles when he tells you that he will be there with a few of his friends, and that maybe the two of you could meet up. Your heart soars at this, and you immediately agree. 

A week later, you're touching down in L.A., climbing into your transport to Anaheim and your hotel for the next few days. Most important, your mind is racing with thoughts of Raz. You knee was bouncing the entire way to Anaheim, and you still were fidgeting the whole way into the Hotel and up to your room. 

Raz demanded that you tell him when you arrived at your Hotel, so you shot him a quick text and hopped into the shower before bed. You wanted to be well rested for all the events tomorrow, and maybe put a little extra effort into your makeup and hair to impress Raz tomorrow. After you climb into bed, you check the text you'd received from him. 

 

_Meet me at the Overwatch booth at noon? What will you be wearing so I can find you?_

You shoot a look at your still-packed suitcase and take a quick inventory, before deciding on a blue and white striped zip-up hoodie and some jean shorts. You let him know, and he responds that he'll be wearing a black and white flannel. 

It was hard to fall asleep with thoughts in your head of finally meeting Raz, and maybe... maybe telling him how you feel at some point this weekend. Maybe... 

 

Tomorrow as hectic. You woke up early, took another shower, meticulously put on your makeup and did your hair the way Barry complimented it. You were disgusting, pining after a guy like this. You frowned at yourself in the mirror and jabbed a finger toward your image. 

"Okay, you need to stop this. You guys are meeting up as friends! That's all you need to expect out of this! Stop it. Stop. Push that outta your head, you crazy bitch," You lectured yourself until you felt properly disciplined. You headed down for the continental breakfast, texting Raz on that way down that you were awake and excited to see him. His response was at least ten different emojis of increasing happiness and exclamation. What a dingleberry. 

But you couldn't stop the smile, either way. 

Breakfast was standard, but you were more excited when you finally got into Blizzcon. You had to stop and just take it all in. You'd been playing Warcraft for years and years, and this was the pinnacle of your experience. You made it a point to find the entrance to the Overwatch area in preparation for later, then wandered around to all of the other areas. 

You may or may have not spent way too much money on merchandise, but you'd been saving and saving in hopes to get into the next Blizzcon, it was just pure luck that you were given a ticket to this one. So you decided to live a little. Buy those silly figurines. Get that Overwatch sweatshirt. Have a good time. 

At 11:30, you couldn't distract yourself any longer and headed over to the Overwatch area, standing at the entrance and fidgeting with your phone, scrolling through Facebook, checking Instagram, looking at Facebook again. You were able to waste 15 minutes that way. Maybe Raz would come early? You looked around every once in a while, but no black and white flannels to be seen. You couldn't wait, it was killing you. 

Your heart was about to burst out of your chest, so it was only fair when you felt a hand rest on your shoulder that you let out a small scream. The person behind you laughed, and you knew that voice. You spun around with a startled, "Raz!?" 

The person in front of you wasn't Raz - or were they? You slowly dragged your gaze up, over the black and white flannel, over the neatly shaven beard, up to the face that you could recognize anywhere. 

"B-Barry?" You were baffled. What? What the fuck? His face was sheepish and he smiled a little. 

"Maybe. Or I might be Raz. You never know. Probably." 

"You're Raz?" You were barely able to hear youself over the crowd around you, but he smiled and opened his arms for a hug. You couldn't stop the frown on your face. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" You asked, and his smile faltered a little, and his arms lowered a fraction. 

"Uh... I just- I mean, I didn't want- fuck." 

"Six months of talking and you couldn't tell me? What about all the times I talked about you without even knowing about it! I gushed over you so much and you didn't even have the decency to tell me!? I thought we were friends, what the hell, Raz! Or Barry. Or whoever, fucking hell!" Your voice went from quiet and confused, to loud and angry in the span of seconds. Barry's arms were still open for a hug and you had to stop yourself from entering them. You bit your lip to try and keep the tears from spilling over, but you failed. 

Barry reached forward to wipe one trail away, but as soon as he touched your skin you recoiled a step backward. He opened his mouth to speak but you spun on your heel and stormed off. Away from Barry, away from this convention center. Back to the hotel, where you could hide out for the rest of the day, and maybe avoid that dick at the convention tomorrow. 

You slammed the hotel door behind you and slid down it, finally letting out a wracking sob. You couldn't tell if you were embarrassed, or hurt, or happy, or enraged. Six months! Almost seven, and he couldn't even have the decency to let you know that you were gushing about him, right in front of him! How mortifying. Then, there was the fact he couldn't even trust you enough to tell you who he was. 

You wiped your cheeks and sat up a little straighter when you received a text. You weren't sure if you wanted it to be Barry or not. It was a different number, one you didn't know. 

 

_It's Arin. What's your hotel and room number._

_Just me, just wanna talk._

_Please._

 

A series of three texts came from the number, and you debated answering or not. Arin wasn't a part of this. He didn't deserve to be ignored. You answered with simply the Hotel and room number, and it wasn't 15 minutes before your room was disturbed by two sharp knocks. 

You open the door, and under normal circumstances you would've been hyperventilating to be meeting Arin Hanson in the flesh, but he just made a gesture for you to move out of the way, and you quietly let him in. Your makeup was running and you felt like hell, but he didn't seem to care. Tucked under his arm was a laptop, and he tossed it on your unmade bed. 

"I'm Arin. You probably know me though, from the jumbled mess I got out of Barry when he came back to the room looking like shit," You nodded and sat on the bed, and he sat next to you, pulling the laptop on his lap and opening it. 

"You okay? I know this is all sorts of fucked up." 

"Yeah, it really fuckin' is," You grumbled, wiping your cheek with your sleeve, and he let out a short laugh before resting an arm on your shoulders. 

"I'm gonna be honest with you. Raz and Barry are the same person. I don't even mean like, physically either. Barry didn't fake anything with you, alright? He didn't lie, didn't bullshit a personality, nothing. I know it's all fucky, we told him that he needed to tell you, he was gonna today – but you saw how that worked out I guess. Lemme just show you, alright?" You nodded, and he booted up Skype on his computer and opened up a conversation with Barry, and scrolled through the history. Where he stopped was dated for a week before – when they agreed to meet in person at Blizzcon. 

 

_Barry: Oh shit man. What do I do?_

_Arin: WHATWHATWHAT_

_Barry: We're meeting. In a week. At Blizzcon._

_Arin: o shit o shit_

_Barry: dude stop, this is serious. What do I do. I don't wanna fuck it up._

_Arin: I mean, you already kinda fucked it up. You should've told her before. She's gonna be pissed_

_Barry: I don't want her to be pissed man, I really fuckin' like her. I fucked up_

_Arin: yeah you did, dumbdumb. Just gonna have to play it by ear I guess lol_

 

He scrolled back further to almost 4 months ago. 

_  
Barry: dude. Dude. Dude._

_Arin: wat wat wat_

_Barry: She and I were talking today_

_Arin: Whoa call the news station, breaking report_

_Barry: fuck you dude, anyway, she was talking about me. Not like Raz me but like me me, and how awesome my editing was, and that i was cute and a dream boat_

_Arin: that's a good thing, right? You only fuckin' talking about how beautiful and amazing she is like, 24/7. Just tell her who you are and be all cute and couply together_

_Barry: I can't, she'll be mad, especially after all that today, she'll be embarrassed_

 

"And it goes on more and more. Look, he really likes you, alright? _Like_ likes you, you get it?" 

You start sobbing, burying your face in your hands, "Holy fuck, I fucked up. I ruined everything-" 

"Nah, you're good. C'mere," He wraps his arm around your shoulder again and pulls you to his chest so you could continue crying in comfort, "Barry's in the same boat, alright? When I left he was pacing and almost crying, saying he ruined his chance with the girl of his dreams. Just talk to him, alright? He ain't mad, you didn't ruin anything. Want me to send him over?" 

You shook your head in between hiccups, and Arin pats your head, "Yeah, I'm just gonna send him over anyway. My miiiiind's tellin' me yessssss, but my bodaaaay, my bodaaay's also saying yes so just answer the door when he gets here, alright? Work this shit out," His half-assed song makes you laugh a little, and he ruffles your hair and scoops up his laptop. With a short goodbye, he leaves the room, and you estimate that you maybe have 15 minutes before Barry shows up. You run to the bathroom to rinse your face and brush your hair quickly. 

 

The knock was quiet, and if you hadn't been waiting at the door, you wouldn't have heard it. On the other side of the door was Barry, looking just as shitty as you did. He stares at you for a long moment before closing the distance and scooping you in his arms and crushing you to his chest, mumbling apologies in your hair. He walks the two of you in the room and shuts the door, and you finally pull away, crying all over again, "I'm sorry Barry, I was embarrassed and hurt and I ruined everythi-" 

"No, I should have told you sooner. I liked that we could talk so easily and you didn't expect anything out of me, and by the time I realized that you wouldn't do that, it was too late, and I knew you would be mad at me for waiting so long, and I hoped maybe if I met you in person it would be easier and-" 

"We both messed up. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten so mad. I just was so shocked and embarrassed from all the stuff I had said about you, and I just love you and I didn't know what to do and the other thing I could pick out was anger that you didn't trust me-" 

"Wait, what did you say?" He stops you, almost frozen in place. It seemed like he was holding his breath. 

"That I'm sor-" 

"No, that other part in the middle." 

"I don't know what you mean." 

His face breaks out in a shy smile and he reaches for you, pulling you to his chest a little gentler, resting his chin on your head and sighing,"Yeah, you do. I love you, too." 

Your heart stops for a moment, before starting back up at double-time. Your face splits into a large grin, and you direct it up at him, and he grins back before bending down to press his lips to yours. His beard is a little scratchy, but you can push that fact back because you are kissing Raz, you are kissing Barry. 

You love him, and he loves you, and you're in his arms and you can feel the smile on his lips mirror yours perfectly, and suddenly everything is just... really great.


End file.
